Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program

• Objectives
• Available Funding
• Program Delivery

The Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP) is a five-year (2009-2014), program with the objective of facilitating the agriculture, agri-food, and agri-based products sector's ability to seize opportunities, respond to new and emerging issues and pilot solutions to new and ongoing issues in order to adapt and remain competitive.

Objectives

Facilitate the agriculture, agri-food, and agri-based products sector's ability to seize opportunities, respond to new and emerging issues and pilot solutions to new and ongoing issues in order to adapt and remain competitive.

Available Funding

CAAP funding is $163 million over five years and is available for eligible projects identified and carried out by the agriculture, agri-food and agri-based products sector. Proposals to access the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP) funding must meet specified principles and be consistent with the program's criteria. These principles and criteria, along with a list of what activities cannot be funded and what project costs are and are not eligible, can be found in the CAAP National Application Guide.

Program Delivery

All of the components of the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP) are delivered by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada or through regional Industry Councils.

The agriculture and agri-food industry is constantly changing and requires flexibility and the capacity to address new issues as they emerge. To help achieve this CAAP will focus on:

• Seizing opportunities
• Responding to new and emerging issues
• Pathfinding and piloting solutions to new and ongoing issues

Seizing opportunities is meant to take advantage of a situation or circumstance to develop a new idea, product, niche, or market opportunity to the benefit of the sector.

Responding to new and emerging issues is meant to address issues that were not of concern previously, or were not known about at all. Issues are often different throughout Canada because the state of development of the sector, soil conditions, and climate vary considerably from one region to another.

Pathfinding and piloting solutions to new and ongoing issues is meant to test ways of dealing with new issues, or find new ways to deal with existing issues. Under the Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Program (CAAP), this is done in two ways:

• Pathfinding means looking at different options to prepare the sector to face the future and remain competitive.
• Piloting means the testing of ideas or approaches to see if they are effective enough to use in everyday applications in the sector.